Russian airstrikes destroy 472 terrorist targets in Syria in 48 hours, 1,000 oil tankers in 5 days

RT ^ | 11-23-2015 | RT

[tcrlaf]

Russian airstrikes have torched more than 1,000 tankers taking stolen crude oil to Islamic State refineries. This blow against the jihadists comes as the Russian Air Force has hit 472 terrorist targets in two days in Syria, making 141 sorties.

All Russian aircraft have successfully returned to the Khmeimim airbase near Latakia, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said in a daily briefing.

[ETL]

This is GREAT training for the Russians while our military is downsizing.

From the campaign trail, 2008...

Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs

February 29, 2008 :: News
MissileThreat.com

A video has surfaced of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama talking on his plans for strategic issues such as nuclear weapons and missile defense.

The full text from the video, as released, reads as follows:

Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.

First, I'll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.[i.e. not win it]

Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.

I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.

I will not weaponize space.

I will slow our development of future combat systems.

And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.

Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.

You know where I stand. I've fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don't switch positions or make promises that can't be kept. I don't posture on defense policy and I don't take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much.

Article: Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs:

http://web.archive.org/web/20090412030633/http://missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086/detail.asp

"MissileThreat.com is a project of The Claremont Institute devoted to understanding and promoting the requirements for the strategic defense of the United States."

[ETL]

From Investor's Business Daily, Jan 2012:

Obama To Betray Missile Defense Secrets To Moscow
Investor's Business Daily ^ | January 9, 2012 | IBD staff

Appeasement: From ObamaCare to recess appointments, honoring the Constitution has not been an administration hallmark. But when it comes to betraying secrets to mollify the Russians, it becomes a document the president hides behind.

It was bad enough that the 2012 defense authorization bill signed by President Obama set America on a downward spiral of military mediocrity.

He also issued a signing statement, something he once opposed, saying that language in the bill aimed at protecting top-secret technical data on the U.S. Standard Missile-3 - linchpin of our missile defense - might impinge on his constitutional foreign-policy authority.

Section 1227 of the defense law prohibits spending any funds that would be used to give Russian officials access to sensitive missile-defense technology as part of a cooperation agreement without first sending Congress a report identifying the specific secrets, how they'd be used and steps to protect the data from compromise.

The president is required to certify that any technology shared will not be passed on to third parties such as China, North Korea or Iran, that the Russians will not use transferred secrets to develop countermeasures and that the Russians are reciprocating in sharing missile-defense technology. ..."

"In his signing statement, Obama said he would treat these legal restrictions as 'non-binding' and that 'my administration will also interpret and implement section 1244 (sic) in a manner that does not interfere with the president's constitutional authority to conduct foreign affairs and avoids the undue disclosure of sensitive diplomatic communications.'

Betraying our secrets is easy for a president who betrayed allies Poland and the Czech Republic to placate Moscow.

Poland was to host ground-based interceptors such as those we've deployed in California and Alaska, with missile-tracking radar deployed in the Czech Republic.

Obama pulled the plug when Moscow objected. Never mind, he said, we have a better approach: a four-phase plan that calls for using three versions of the Navy's Standard SM-3 interceptor missile that forms the backbone of its Aegis missile-defense system.

The fourth phase consists of a missile still on the drawing board scheduled for deployment by 2020, a version of the SM-3 called the Block IIB. It would intercept hostile missiles in the "early intercept" phase before an enemy missile could release its warheads and decoys. The Russians want the SM-3's secrets, and Obama appears to be willing to turn them over.

The president wants to save the New Start Treaty, which the Russians have threatened to abandon if we try to fully implement President Reagan's dream of defeating a nuclear missile attack.

Russia has unilaterally asserted that any qualitative or quantitative improvement in U.S. missile defenses would be grounds for withdrawal from the treaty.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily:
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/010912-597158-obama-gives-russia-missile-defense-secrets.htm#ixzz3jXmMbVwY

[ETL]

March 2012...

"Obama was talking with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when neither of them realized that their conversation was being picked up by microphones. Here is what they said:

Obama: "On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it's important for him to give me space."

Medvedev: "Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you ..."

Obama: "This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility."

Medvedev: "I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."

"This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility." That statement tells us much about the president's mindset.

The specific mention of missile defense is worrisome enough. Mr. Obama has retreated from the missile defense plan that was negotiated with European allies during the George W. Bush administration. Apparently, he is signaling Moscow that he intends to retreat further. The clear implication from the president's comments is that he cannot tell the American people before the election what he plans to do after the election.

In addition, there is the phrase "on all these issues," implying more is at stake than just missile defense."

Article: Obama plans double cross on missile defense
When it comes to keeping America safe, we shouldn't be too flexible:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/29/obama-plans-double-cross-on-missile-defense/print/
__________________________________________________________

[RummyChick]

There are a lot of people on this site that don’t trust Putin, wouldn’t want him as a US President..but are grateful that he is doing something that helps us. Of course, he is an enemy of the US. But right now, Obama is an enemy of the US, too.

I feel sorry for the Secret Service. Some of them have got to know that Obama is bad news for the US.

[R. Scott]

Rules of engagement.

[RummyChick]

Send that picture to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump

[Former Proud Canadian]

Unless you are over 60 I have been a cold warrior longer than you, and I was extremely skeptical at first regarding RT.

However, I find myself watching their non political documentaries and a lot of their news coverage. The propaganda is less heavy handed than NPR, ABC, CBS, NBC etc., etc.

Facts are facts. The Russians and the French can find and destroy ISIS targets. The US can't/won't, take your pick.

ISIS would not exist without the help of one or more governments. They got initial financing and arms from those governments.

Bonus questions:

1. Was Chris Stevens in Benghazi to broker an arms deal to "Syrian rebels (ISIS)"?

2. Was the CIA, with at least two outposts in Benghazi, there to do the same thing?

3. Does anybody care?

[ETL]

There are a lot of people on this site that don't trust Putin, wouldn't want him as a US President..but are grateful that he is doing something that helps us. Of course, he is an enemy of the US. But right now, Obama is an enemy of the US, too.

I firmly believe the two of them (Obama and Putin) are in cahoots on the Russian comeback. Obama has bent over backwards giving Putin all that he's wanted on missile defense and nukes, meanwhile dangerously slashing our own military. He, and many around him, were loyal supporters of the Soviet Union. And KGB/FSB Putin is basically out to restore it under the guise of fighting terrorism.

The Russians are masters of the complex game of chess, while most of us, unfortunately, suck at simple checkers. They are probably laughing their butts off at how easily they have manipulated so many of us. Lenin had an expression for these types of people. He referred to them as Russia's "useful idiots" in the West.

[ETL]

RT = Russia Times

Nov 2015...

Vladimir Putin's media Svengali who was found dead in DC hotel was 'murdered for being an FBI informant'

• Millionaire Mikhail Lesin, 57, was found dead in $240-a-night in Washington DC last Friday [Nov 6, 2015] and police are investigating

• The pro-Putin 'propaganda channel' he set up, RT, claimed he 'had been suffering from a prolonged unidentified illness'

• But DC police have made no such finding

  "Nicknamed the 'Bulldozer', Lesin was one of the key props of the Putin presidency, personally masterminding a wide-ranging media crackdown which has left the vast majority of Russian TV stations and newspapers obedient to the Kremlin."

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3315994/Vladimir-Putin-s-media-mastermind-dead-DC-hotel-murdered-FBI-informant-alive-claim-Russians.html#ixzz3rOUopg7Q
  _______________________________________________________

  List of journalists killed in Russia:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia#A_list_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia

[tcrlaf]

What does any of that copy-paste spam have to do with the Russians striking ISIS??

[Krosan]

Russian bombs always land on target. Wherever they land there is their target. After that come the press release. gazillion bombs dropped right at targets.

[Sasparilla]

...how the Russians can find, AND HIT, all of these ISIS Infrastructure sites and Oil Tankers, but we can’t, after 18 months??...

Obama knew where they are. However, Zero’s current “rules of engagement” do not allow live fire where one single so called civilian is present. Our so called leader believes that all the oil tanker truck drivers are “civilians,” thus no bombing or strafing of them. Isn’t that compassionate?

[Jane Long]

And, we have 0 giving them 45 minute NOTICE....

[varon]

This is GREAT training for the Russians while our military is downsizing.

Perhaps we should consider offering our southern border for strafing practice..............

[Liz]

.....0 gave them 45 minute NOTICE of the bombing....

He figures that oughta be worth a $10 million donation to his Clintonesque
foundations.....maybe even a 3-4 million dollar honoraria, maybe an insider oil deal.

Little things...like a warning.... add up.

[rrrod]

BOOM!

[InterceptPoint]

I’m inclined to agree with you about Benghazi at least as with regard to supplying “rebels” with arms from Libya. Were those ISIS rebels? That is a tougher question. I don’t know. I’m not sure if there is any proof of that.

As to RT you are probably correct there as well. But I still hear supposedly reliable news sources telling us that the Russians promised to bomb ISIS but they are not doing so. I guess I should have put ‘supposedly’ in ALL CAPS. OTOH, it is nevertheless surprising that we only get the RT input on Russian activities in Syria. Where are the other news services? They should have some real take on what is going on.

[Liz]

There are a lot of people on this site that dont trust Putin......but are grateful he is doing something that helps us.......he is considered an enemy of the US. But right now, Obama is an enemy of the US, too.

Syria's Assad---targeted by the feckless Obama----said recently "Putin is the only one defending Christians."

We have to keep in mind that all we know about these conflicts is what Obama chooses to tell us....and it looks like he's been deliberately misleading Americans. God only knows what else the America-hating Halfrican is holding back.

[spokeshave]

Send that picture to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump

Better yet..send post 21 above

The fourth phase consists of a missile still on the drawing board scheduled for deployment by 2020, a version of the SM-3 called the Block IIB. It would intercept hostile missiles in the "early intercept" phase before an enemy missile could release its warheads and decoys. The Russians want the SM-3's secrets, and Obama appears to be willing to turn them over.

The president wants to save the New Start Treaty, which the Russians have threatened to abandon if we try to fully implement President Reagan's dream of defeating a nuclear missile attack.

Russia has unilaterally asserted that any qualitative or quantitative improvement in U.S. missile defenses would be grounds for withdrawal from the treaty.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/010912-597158-obama-gives-russia-missile-defense-secrets.htm#ixzz3jXmMbVwY